This term Eli has been going to weekly therapy sessions at a place called The Sensory Gym. Eli has Asperger’s and Sensory Integration Disorder a string of big fancy terms which basically means that he is out of sync with the world around him. He can’t filter sound instead he hears all the noises around him at once causing a wave of incomprehensible sound. He used to become very aggressive when this happens, screaming and blaming those around him, accusing them of deliberately yelling at him or tricking him so he couldn’t hear them.
He is also sensitive to unexpected touch. He has an overly defensive reaction to any contact that he is unable to anticipate or that he believes to be restraining such as holding hands.
Clothes bother him as well and the change over between winter and summer clothes is always hard for him. I quite often hear “I’ve got nothing to wear” even if his wardrobe is full. At the moment we are having to deal with two hour long meltdowns because his skin feels itchy, I’m assuming that this has to do with him getting a little sweaty in the hot weather we’ve been having lately. We have decided to use this possible negative as an incentive to encourage him to become self sufficient with showering, really talking up the need to regularly wash off the sticky sweat.
Eli loves The Sensory Gym, they have taught him new coping devises and ways of calming himself down. He has learnt that the reason he can’t sit still and crashes his body into everything, or jumps and twirls has to do with the way his body copes with its environment and that things like sensory brushing and deep pressure exercises can help him cope better. Plus it has a flying fox and is just generally really cool.
My son goes to the Sensory Gym at his school but he is doing so well they want to cut his sessions so he can spend more time in the classroom. I’ll try to resist this as long as possible, but personally I think all kids should spend time in the sensory gym everyday! Think of how much happier the classroom would be!